This is our Hippo Cake.

For my son’s first birthday, we were planning on celebrating with a Safari Party. We called him our little hippo, and I found Mama and Baby Hippo cake toppers online. Everything was purchased at either my local grocery store or Michael’s.

Ingredients:
2 boxes of cake mix (I preferred 1 Yellow Cake and 1 Chocolate Cake)
6 eggs
Vegetable Oil
Water
2 tubs of butter cream icing
Crisco

Tools:
8x8 cake pan
10x10 cake pan
Small cooling racks
Parchment Paper
Electric mixer and mixing bowls (multiple sizes)
Large knife (to level cakes)
Icing Spatula
Wilson’s icing dye: Blue, Green, and Brown
Blue editable glitter
1 Cardboard cake boards 13x19 (cake sits on)
Plastic Mama and Baby Cake Toppers
2 plastic fern type plants from Michael's
Scissors

Bake Cakes:

1. Grease the 8x8, and 10x10 cake pans. Layer the bottom in parchment paper cut to the size of the pan. (This helps the cake come out without anything sticking to the bottom of the pan.)

2. Prepare one box of cake mix, following instructions on the box (i.e. combining cake mix, 3 eggs, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, and 1 ¼ cup water in a large mixing bowl). Mix on low for 30 seconds followed by 2 minutes at medium until smooth. Pour almost all of it into the 8x8 pan.

3. Prepare the second box of cake mix together and pour it into the 10x10 pan (the extra from the 8x8 pan will even out and bring the 10x10 to the same level as the 8x8 one).

4. Bake the cakes (I used 325 degrees for about 35 minutes, but consult the cake mix for your specific type of pan and make sure that the cake is done using a toothpick. I baked the 8x8 and the 10x10 together.)

5. Allow cakes to cool slightly, then run a knife around the sides and flip onto a cooking rack. Pull off the parchment paper and flip again. Once the cakes are significantly cool, take a large knife and level the cakes, cutting off the raised centers.

You don’t need to be exactly perfect as this cut surface is going to be the bottom of each of the layers, with the nice sharp corners and flat top being the part that was molded by the pan.

6. Flip the now level 10x10 cake onto the large piece of cake cardboard for the final cake to be displayed on. Mine was 13x19. This is be the bottom stabilization for the entire cake building process.

Decorating the Cake (took most of the day):

1. Using the brown icing dye, tint the butter cream (about half of one tub) a light brown and add a nice thick layer of the butter cream on the sides of the 10x10 cake. This is all the brown you will need.

2. Using the green icing dye, tint the butter cream (a whole tub) a light swampy green and add a nice thick layer of the butter cream on the top of the 10x10 cake.

3. Place the 8x8 cake on the top of the 10x10 at an angle so it doesn’t look like a pyramid. Twist it slightly to make it look more like a hill.

4. Using the blue icing dye, tint the butter cream (the remaining half of one tube) a light blue and add a nice thick layer of the butter cream on the top of the 8x8 cake into the shape of a lake or pond. Try not to make it a circle, but have many curves to it like a real land or pond.

5. Use the remaining green butter cream to cover the remaining sides and exposed top on the 8x8 cake.

6. Add the Hippo cake toppers and a little bit of the edible blue glitter to the pool.

7. Finally, cut apart the plastic plants, rinse them under running water, and stick them into the cake on the first layer around the sides of the top layer. This will make the hill with the pool of water, look like it is part of a swamp.